Ali Zeidan, the Libyan prime minister, is seen as a liberal with close ties to
the West - which may have been the reason he was targeted by revolutionaries

Originally a diplomat, he defected from the regime of the former leader Col Muammar Gaddafi in 1980 and went into exile. There he helped form the main opposition organisation, the National Salvation Liberation Front, living in Geneva.

At the start of the uprising in February 2011, he was appointed European envoy for the National Transitional Council, which was established in the rebel base Benghazi as the revolution's political leadership.

He is said to have played a major role in persuading the then French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to take up the rebel cause. Mr Sarkozy, supported by the prime minister, David Cameron, eventually convinced

President Barack Obama that the US, Britain and France should lead a military intervention against Col Gaddafi.

After the fall of Tripoli he stood as an MP, and lost an election to become Speaker to Mohammed Magarief.

He then resigned his seat to stand for election last November to become prime minister, winning against Mohammed al-Harari, who was favoured by the Islamist-leaning Justice and Construction Party.

However, he built a cross-party cabinet. His biggest challenge has been to balance the competing demands of the many militias left over from the revolution, many claiming loyalty to the government but nevertheless maintaining their own power bases - some regional, some ideological, and many religious.

Libya's immediate future relies on its ability to continue to finance itself by its oil exports, making its oil installations hostage to blackmail by armed gangs.

Mr Zeidan faced pressure from the West to crack down on militant brigades such as Ansar al-Sharia, the group accused of the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi last year which killed the US ambassador,

Christopher Steven. However, it lacked the strength to do so without the support of other Islamist militias, which was not forthcoming.

His failure led to the American decision at the weekend to begin to take matters into their own hands - something which may have doomed Mr Zeidan, who was immediately accused of being "America's puppet leader".